Kiram’s passport photo below is verified by the Philippine National Police.

Rappler

Kiram was born in Zamboanga City, he travelled with his wife and daughter to Syria in 2015, according to a confidential Interpol report dated December, 2016.

Turkish officials confirmed their arrival at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport on May 20, 2015. Authorities from at least 3 countries, including the Philippines, say they are now in Raqqa.

Arrests in Malaysia this week spotlight a new ISIS terror cell using Sabah as a transit point to funnel recruits from Southeast Asia and South Asia to the southern Philippines, evidence that Kiram’s rallying cry last June is now being carried out.

Tracing the background of Kiram, an intelligence documents suggested that he was allegedly part of Ansar al-Khalifa, also known as AKP, Ansar Khalifa Philippines, Ansar al-Khilafah or Ansar Khilafah.

The AKP is the latest evolution of a sub-group once part of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) network and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

In 2015, through a YouTube video, the group has pledged allegiance to ISIS, largely believed to be the group in a video distributed in November 2015 threatening the APEC Summit in Manila. It was globally distributed by ISIS propaganda sites.

As of the moment, Philippine military forces are currently fighting the group together with other ISIS-pledged rebel organization called Maute.

Daily Mail

The Maute group has been known in the Southern Philippines as an active leftist armed group, they already occupied a city in Mindanao, Marawi City. Reason why President Rodrigo Duterte cut short his Russia trip and even declared Martial Law in the southern part of the country.